Out Patients
by Blairends
Summary: What ever happens to the patients on House after the team diagnosis them? A series about what might possibly happen to these characters. Doctors from HOUSE are mentioned in every chapter, but only show up in about half.
1. Let Them Eat Cake

**Disclaimer: I do not own House, or the characters in it. However, some of the characters in this series are my own creations.**

**Summary: What ever happens to the patients after House and his team diagnose them?**

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_Breath in...Breath out..._Emmy thought to herself. She was running. Again. She knew it was stupid to run two miles when she had recently cut her meals in half, but she was bored. Running took her mind off things. Besides, she had someone that she needed to see.

*****

"You have the most beautiful eyes," Marcos Vanuel had the most amazing smile Emmy had seen in a while.

"Thank you," she replied, and averted her eyes. Marcos was a client. And he was very, _very_ overweight. Two hundred and thirteen pounds overweight to be exact. They had met three months after Emmy had been released from the hospital. Emmy originally hadn't had any feelings for Marcos, but he was very persistent. So far, he had followed her instructions to a tee, and had lost fifty one pounds in four months. Marcos had also managed to keep Emmy's spirits high by just _listening _to her. No one ever listened to her unless she was helping them loose weight, or giving them advice, or _dying._ But Emmy hadn't been in any real danger of dying for a while.

"Did you run all the way here?" Marcos's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Uhm, yeah. Yeah, I did." Emmy looked up at his doughy face, "I kind of wanted...well, I wanted...Are you busy?"

Marcos sighed, "Emmy, what's wrong?"

She glanced around nervously. But it was an act. They always pretended that when she had a problem, it was small and she didn't need to talk about it. "I just figured I'd get some exercise, and check up on you."

Marcos smiled again, and Emmy quickly turned to stare around at his apartment. It was nice, and had a cozy feel to it. A small kitchen branched off of the living room, so you could still see the TV when you made food, or ate food, or did the dishes, or whatever else you needed to do in the kitchen. The living room had two small, comfy sofas surrounding a glass coffee table, and a plasma screen TV. The TV was flanked by tall bookcases, filled to the top with books ranging from thick novels, to picture books that Marcos read his daughter, Anna. Anna was staying with her mom at the moment, who had split with Marcos two years ago. Down the hall were two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. It was nice. Much different from Emmy's large, empty house.

"You don't look so good." Marcos reprimanded, still staring at Emmy; almost as if he was scrutinizing her.

"I'm fine." Emmy shook her head. The recent cut in her meals wasn't good for her hereditary coproporphyria, but her butt had been looking bigger. So out went the second pancake, in came the double dosage of pills. Marcos knew. Or at least he thought he knew everything. Emmy had told him about the bypass, the hereditary coproporphyria, and her choice not to get 100% healthy. He understood. Somehow, mystifyingly, he understood. And she understood him. He was fat, obese, disgusting, everything that Emmy had refused to go back to, but he _got _her. The last few months, she had opened up to him about all of that, but it still wasn't everything.

"I've been thinking," Emmy began, "About when I was hospitalized for...my condition."

"At Princeton?" Marcos inquired.

"Yeah...at Princeton..." if she was going to say it, she might as well get it over with fast, "There was this doctor-"

"-House?" Marcos interrupted, and than quickly added a "sorry."

Emmy frowned. Marcos didn't usually interrupt.

"No. His name was Taub. He used to be a plastic surgeon, and he...thought I made the wrong decision. He and Doctor House thought I was choosing beauty over health."

Marcos raised his eyebrows, "And?" he asked, softly.

"And..." here went nothing, "What do you think? Do you think I made the wrong choice?"

Sighing heavily, Marcos leaned back into his chair, "This Taub guy, he was a plastic surgeon?" Emmy nodded in response, "Then he corrected flaws in people's _looks_ for a living. Where does a guy like that get off telling you what's good for your health and what's good for your beauty?"

Emmy smiled and looked down at the carpet.

"He doesn't." Marcos's voice resonated throughout the small apartment, "Who is he to say that not getting _fat again_ isn't healthy? Has he ever been obese?"

Emmy inhaled sharply at the last word. She hated the word _obese_. The way it just dripped out of your mouth, almost like it was too big to get out. "No, I don't think so."

Marcos just gazed at her in silence. Emmy sat there, thinking. Marcos hadn't _directly_ answered her question. He had just given her fuel to her thoughts. Was staying skinny another way to stay healthy? The doctors had told her that the pills she was taking for her hereditary coproporphyria should give her about the same lifespan as she would have if she was pigging out. But could she sooner die of a medical complication because of her weight if she did eat the high glucose diet? She had thought over these questions a hundred times in the last seven months, but had never come up with an answer.

"Thanks." she said to Marcos, who just waved to her on her way out.

*****

_Dear Doctor Taub,_

_I'm writing to inform you that I have been doing fine._

_My hereditary coproporphyria has been perfectly_

_controlled with the pills you gave me a while ago. I _

_don't know that you'll even remember me, or if you_

_are even still a doctor, or if you even still use this _

_e-mail address, but it's the one that you gave me _

_seven months ago when you were diagnosing me._

_You gave me the e-mail address and told me to e-mail_

_or call you if the drugs had any side-effects or didn't seem_

_to be doing their job. They are. I'm still a skinny,_

_rich, fitness adviser, and I'm still alive. I'm happy _

_with the decision I made._

_-Emmy Harding._

_P.S.- I had cake for breakfast yesterday (it was _

_chocolate)._

It had taken Emmy seven months to admit how she really felt, seven minutes to write it, and seven seconds to delete it without sending it.

*****

The next morning, Emmy woke up, got dressed, and walked into her kitchen. On her answering machine, there were two messages from Marcos asking if she was all right. Emmy knew that she should call him back, but instead she went out for a run. Without eating breakfast.

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**Because most of House's patients DON'T have a happy ending.**

**Feedback is always welcome, and I'm open to requests if you had a favorite patient from past seasons on House, and want to hear what happened to them.**


	2. The Itch

**Disclaimer: I don't own HOUSE or the characters in it. Some of the characters in this story however, are of my own creation.**

**Summary: What ever happens to the patients on HOUSE after they're diagnosed?**

**For MellBell801, who wanted to hear how Stewart Nozick (The Itch) was doing.**

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"Throw the ball over hear!" a little boy yelled to his friend. They were playing monkey-in-the-middle at the park, on a beautiful day. At least, Stewart thought it was beautiful. Everyone else probably thought it was a crappy day. The sky was gray with clouds, that would occasionally open up and drench the people trying to enjoy their day under them. It was kind of cold outside, so there weren't a lot of people at the park. Actually, it was just Stewart, the three boys playing, and two girls that were gossiping on the swing-set. But Stewart was absolutely enthralled to be there. It was amazing to feel the wind blowing on your face, messing up your hair and making you shiver. And it was amazing to feel the tiniest rays of sun, peeping through the clouds, warming your cheeks, and making tiny rainbows after it rained. And it was amazing to _feel rain._ Actually feel it, filling up the hollows of your eyes when you tilted your head back, not like the shower at all. So much more amazing then he had ever imagined. But Stewart's favorite part of being outside was the smell. The wonderful smell of freshly cut grass, or of budding flowers, or of the musky scent that fills the air after it rains.

"Stewart? Is that you?"

Stewart whipped around to see Allison Cameron standing to the left of the bench where he was sitting. He had arranged to meet with Allison, here at the park, to show her just how well he was doing after just one week.

"Fancy meeting you hear!" He called to her, grinning. "Nice day, huh?"

He watched the emotions play on her face; shock, disbelief, shock again, and then...excitement. "You're all wet," Cameron observed with a smile on her face. "You're going to catch a cold."

Stewart flinched at the words. Diseases that he could catch outside were still a big fear of his, but not half as big as they had been before.

"You want to go back to my apartment? I have to show Chase!" she gestured toward her car, which was parked in the small parking lot.

Stewart frowned. He had been waiting all day at the park for it to rain again so that he could see a big rainbow. He had been seeing tiny ones all day, but they really weren't the same as an actual rainbow would be. Stewart had never seen a rainbow.

"All right."

Into the car they went, Cameron babbling excitedly the whole way.

"Was this your first time outside?" Stewart shook his head, "Wow, I'm just amazed at how much progress you've made in a week. It's just...amazing!" she turned to look at him. "You look really happy, Stewart."

He looked directly back at her as he said the next words, "I am happy, Allison."

*****

"You're really that guy from last week?"

Stewart didn't like Robert Chase all that much. He was one of the doctors that had tricked him into coming into the hospital to do surgery on him. And he asked to many stupid questions.

"Yep, the one and only," Stewart answered with a nervous laugh, while glancing at the window behind Chase's head. It was pouring outside, and when it stopped there would almost definitely be a rainbow.

Chase turned to look at Cameron "Wow. That's..."

"...Amazing." Cameron repeated. She held Chase's gaze a second longer before they both turned back to face Stewart, "I'm so proud of you, Stewart."

"Your story is really pretty interesting," Chase told him, "you could write a book about it and make a load of money." Cameron playfully smacked him on the shoulder.

"Let's just try to get out of this town first without hyperventilating, shall we?" Stewart smiled, and the two doctors laughed a bit too loudly. That was one thing that annoyed him about people that knew he used to be an agoraphobe; they treated him like he was a child who had just got over a bad illness. Stewart wasn't a child, and his agoraphobia hadn't been the illness threatening his life. It had just been another part of his life, and now it was over.

There was an awkward pause after that, and Stewart turned his gaze back to the window. It had stopped raining! "Thank you, Allison. And thank you, Robert, but I have to get going."

"Oh. Uhm, alright." Cameron frowned, "Just let me get my keys and-"

"Thank you, but I'd prefer to walk home." The two doctors stared at him with confused expressions.

"But...that's at least a half hour walk," Chase said, his eyes narrowed.

"I know," Stewart grinned, "But some fresh air would really do me some good."

*****

_SPLASH!!!_ Stewart knew it was a childish thing to do, but there were just so many puddles around. And besides, he had never jumped in puddles when he actually _had_ been a kid, so why not start now? Puddle jumping was fun in theory, but when you actually jumped into a small puddle and got soaked with freezing water it wasn't all that great. And it was even less great when you still had to walk about ten more minutes to your house. Stewart glanced anxiously at the sky again. No rainbow. There hadn't been one so far.

"_Damn,_" Stewart thought to himself, "_I really wanted to see one today!_"

He was at the park where he had started his day, now. The two girls had left, but the three boys were still playing catch. They were covered head to toe in mud, and one of them kept sneezing like he had a cold, but they looked like they were having fun. Stewart smiled to himself. When he was a kid, he had spent as much time indoors as possible. It had been the beginning of his agoraphobia, and he had never really been all that happy. He was happy now.

Water droplets began to fall from the sky again, and Stewart sighed. If it started raining again, there probably wouldn't be enough sun left to make a rainbow when it stopped. It was already 5:27!

"Oh well," Stewart said aloud. All in all, today had been a good day. As the rain began to come down harder, Stewart began to sing. His neighborhood was now in sight, but no one was outside to hear his god-awful singing voice.

"Raindrops keep falling on my head. But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red! Crying's not for me! 'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining, because I'm free!" Stewart belted out the lyrics as he neared his house.

"Nothing's worrying me."

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**Feedback is always welcome, and if you have a favorite patient from HOUSE and want to hear their story, send me a PM or leave it in a review :)**


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